My Colon Cleanse turned Kitchen/Food Journal

[TxRabbit]

I think changing eating habit rely greatly on your perspective.

Yesterday's plan went very well. I did get the chicken in the crockpot before lunch.

The taco plan for lunch was a good one. Browning meat for tacos is fast and easy. I have a taco seasoning from Pensey's. While the meat was browning, I made some pico. Pico makes everything better in our household, incase you haven't noticed.

As I was cooking lunch, DH was getting some final things out of the attic. The storage unit situation is that the truck wouldn't be available on Saturday, but they made a way for us to use the truck Sunday, even though they were closed. This works out well for us. We planned to stage everything going into storage in the garage. It should make moving it into storage much easier. So DH was getting a few more empty boxes out of the attic and I'm cooking in the kitchen. DS is on the computer playing Wizard 101. And I'm thinking...

Eating at home is really cutting into the day a lot less than eating out would. Eating at home is helping us move forward with our plans. Eating out would be a huge interruption in the day. Also a huge pain. I'm really focusing on the time saving aspect of the whole business. And I'm thinking that weekend lunches have been so difficult in the past because of the perspective I have had. Like I needed or deserved a break, a weekend. But the more I was thinking about it, the more I realized that eating out isn't really a "break." Sure, no cooking, no cleaning. But the sacrifice in time makes it not so much of a break. Better to eat at home, watch something funny on the tube, read a book, cruise the internet, whatever. Take some time off from doing anything as a break rather than "treat" myself to poor quality food.

Also, it's kind of a pain to have the whole family together for lunch, foodwise. During the week, lunches for the men are already prepared and done. Mine is easy. But lunch on the weekend is a different animal. I was thinking about when we were doing soccer, and would have early games. We'd almost always eat out for lunch. Partly because we were already out, but also because there was nothing prepared at home, nothing ready, and we were more than ready for food. I was thinking that when we do soccer again, we need to treat those days like the week day. Pack a lunch. Have it ready. Eat at the park.

And these thoughts on perspective continued as I was eating my tacos. DH ate a couple flour tortilla tacos and a corn tortilla taco. I decided to use lettuce for the shell. From someone else's journal, I copied the idea of using butter lettuce for the perfect cups. They worked out great. And I was happy. It was what I WANTED to do. Sure, I love the flour tortillas, but I'm limiting wheat and I had already had the waffle in the morning. I could have had corn, but they often fall apart and I didn't want to deal with that. The lettuce actually sounded good, partly because it fit in so well with my plan. In my mind, I was very pleased with my choices and thus I was satisfied with my lettuce tacos. In the past, when I have tried limiting wheat, I've felt deprived. It's all a mind set. Attitude is everything. Perspective.

The deal with the storage unit meant that we had to go back out to pick up the key to the truck right before closing. Our lunch was later, because our breakfast was later. We had a coupon for BOGO shakes at Sonic, so we had that as a fun hot day, moving day kind of treat. Super tasty. So I guess we didn't totally avoid restaurant food on day one of the weekend, but it wasn't a meal, so that's still kind of in line with my hopes.

It's a very good thing that the crockpot had been made because I felt like doing absolutely NOTHING for dinner. It's also a good thing that I picked up the mac n' cheese that the Grab and Go makes. (My DS loves it, it's creamy, saucy mac n cheese.) Dinner was pick and eat, especially with those late milk shakes.

DH and I enjoyed some beer last night. We got Heineken Light. He had 3. I had 2. I concentrated on enjoying my beer and drinking it slower. I admit that I can chug the beer. A throwback to college days I guess.

When I weighed myself this morning, I was steady: 185 pounds.

Today, there are leftovers galore for lunch AND dinner. Got tacos. Chicken. If I'm feeling more up to cooking something for dinner, I'll make the Mongolian beef. It's a pretty easy stir fry, so maybe. We'll see. Regardless, there's plenty of easy things.

The kitchen on the other hand is a DISASTER. It's an absolute mess of dishes all over. Ah well. DH and DS had waffles with the batter leftover from yesterday. I had a 1 whole egg plus 2 egg white omelet with frozen brocolli (microwaved to heat up first) topped with left over pico. We all had a fruit serving too.

Today, water is important. Since we will be leaving the house and doing the storage unit. We need to make sure to bring lots of water with us. It's hot.

We are also going for a short walk this morning. We are both pretty sore from yesterday's lifting and stair workout, so we need to get the blood flowing in our sore and tight muscles.

I'm loving this journaling too. It really helps me get my thoughts together for the day. And it helps me to write down the thoughts of the previous day. I think I am finally understanding why the experts recommend journaling. It really is helpful! And in it's own way it's a form of accountability, because you know you have to write down what you did. There's something about knowing that you are going to WRITE down your actions. I could get spiritual too and think about how all our actions are recorded and we will be reviewing our lives at the end. Talk about motivation! But this isn't the place to expound on that train of thought. But it's interesting to think about.

 

[TxRabbit]

What a weekend!

Sunday was spent getting our stuff that was staged in the garage into storage. We woke up feeling all the moving that we had done the day before. We knew we needed to get the blood flowing and stretch our muscles a bit before tackling the moving. So we went for a little walk around the neighborhood after breakfast. Limbered up, we headed out to pick up the truck.

Feeling the need for some extra energy, we got lattes at Starbucks on the way. It was just the ticket. After not having a latte for so long, it was especially yummy. Knowing that we were having a "treat," I asked DS if he wanted something (he likes their double chocolate brownies.). Well, he DID want something, but not from Starbucks. He wanted lunch. Ever since going to Sonic for the milkshakes, he's been thinking about burgers and tots.

I opened the door. So DS ate a burger and tots from Sonic. It was getting close to lunch time, around 11ish. DH and I were good though, we were ready to get a move on with the storage situation. So we passed on Sonic food.

After we loaded the truck, we were ready for some food. Thank God for leftovers. Seriously. We had tacos for lunch. DH had flour tortillas, and I had corn. And we were off.

It didn't take too long to deal with storage. We still had other chores to do. I told DH that we needed to recarb after all the moving around and energy expenditure. DH ate a bowl of cereal. I ate some fruit. DH did the lawn. I finished clearing out the garage. I made a huge run to Good Will. Then I packed my car up with a load for the paper/cardboard recycling bins at the library. The few things that still needed to be gone through from the attic could fit on the vacated areas of the shelving in the garage where things had been that had been moved to storage. At the end of the day, we both had our cars back in the garage. It felt awesome.

We had promised DS earlier that we would walk over to his school and play some soccer. I ate an orange on the way. It was hard on the feet to get walking. My toes hurt from going up and down the truck's ramp. And in general, I was just tired and worn out. But a promise is a promise, so off we went.

On the walk home, DH made a crack about how we had been out playing and no one had been home cooking dinner and where was OUR Alice? I got season 1 of the Brady Bunch on DVD from the library. DS is eating it up. And DH and I think it's pretty funny to see all over again. I reminded him that we had crockpot chicken left over. And we still had the mac n cheese from the store. So they had that. DS also had fruit. DH and I had brocolli. I didn't have any pasta, no wheat for me.
I had hosed myself down with bug repellant so I needed to shower before sitting anywhere in the house. DS took care of all the reheating and the brocolli cooking while I did that. It was so nice to not be the one doing it.

I tried to get through the meal without another side, but I was still hungry. I decided to finally make that fried rice. I have one of those bargain books from Barnes n Noble that are chock full of picture instructions. And every recipe has a photo. It's called "Asian Cooking" or something similar. It is so easy to follow. There are so many different fried rice recipes in this book. I made one called Thai Fried Rice, which had onions, red peppers, garlic, mild curry paste, paprika, turmeric, fish sauce, chicken, eggs, and rice, of course. It was EXCELLENT. We had heated up too much chicken for dinner, so I just threw the overage into the rice for the chicken. Very little chopping. Very easy. And it DID save that rather old tasting rice.

I'm thinking that I will use the remaining rice in that bag to experiment with other fried rice recipes. DS loves the fried rice that the Habatchi style restaurants make. I just need to get it cooked up and have it in the fridge, or even the freezer. They actually sell frozen cooked rice. I wonder if there are any issues with freezing rice? I could have a ready batch of rice in the freezer for future use.

We enjoyed a couple beers Sunday evening too.

Monday, OMG, we were SOOOOOO sore. I was thrilled that my back didn't hurt. My hips and gluts were screaming but this indicated proper lifting technique to me, so I was happy, even in my stiffness and pain. We continued with some less labor intensive house projects.

Breakfast was a breakfast sandwich with bacon for DH and DS. And berries. I did a sort of breakfast quesadilla on corn tortillas, served with pico. It was good. I ended up eating it with a fork because the filling was a little slippery, but it was tasty.

A couple errands to run (dealing with truck paperwork since the storage unit wasn't open on Sunday) and I ended up in the Starbucks drive thru for a couple more lattes. It wasn't as good the second day. And I didn't really sit and enjoy it. There were things that happened. I'm remembering this now, because I feel that pull to Starbucks. But I realize that it isn't the latte that I want. I just want to get out of the house and be somewhere else for a while.

I would take a book with me to Starbucks. Especially on a Monday morning (or Tuesday as the holiday weekend might be), just to have a little me time. A little time to just get out of the house, relax from the weekend. Recharge. Think about my day, my week. Whatever. Enjoy my book. I'm wishing for that this morning. Not the drink.

But back to Monday...

DS's best friend called and wanted to come over. No problem. In fact, it would be good for DS to be occupied with company while we took care of business around the house.

I took the last of the pizza dough out of the freezer to make pizza for the boys. Just another reason to keep it IN the freezer. Makes for economical feeding of friends. And it's generally liked. I know very few kids that don't like pizza. They ate that and finished off the mac n cheese for lunch.

I made the Mongolian beef for DH and myself. I pulled out some beef for DS to eat later before I added brocolli to it. It ended up being a super tasty beef and brocolli dish. We ate that with the fried rice on the side. There was enough of both left over to put into DH's entree lunch glass, so that's how I put it away.

Here's a hint when making stir fry from my book. Cut your meat small, or thin. I used flank steak and it worked very well cut thin across the grain. Easy to eat. Coat your meat in corn starch. Sprinkle it on and toss the meat in it to get the corn starch all over. THEN, when you add whatever sauce you want it will naturally thicken and stay coated to whatever is in your stir fry. This makes for way more economical sauces, because you can throw together soy sauce, vinegar, whatever you got, and not have to buy prebottled.

I finally made the Lentil, Rice and Sausage soup for DH and I for dinner. I was able to use the remaining collard greens. A thicker green gets much less slimy as the week goes by. I've used the spinach that the recipe calls for, but, spinach (especially the prewashed baby spinach, LOL) doesn't hold up well in all that liquid. The soup will also be used for lunches this week. I had bought Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle for DS. It was one of the few that listed chicken before carrots on the ingredient list.

We ended up staying up very late last night. I had done some rearranging of the computer equipment in preparation for staging the house. Long and involved, one fun thing that ended up happening was that we finally hooked up the cable to the tv from when I had upgraded the internet. $5 more a month to get faster internet and basic cable. OK. We were having fun with all the new channels and getting the tv programmed. Then I hooked up the internet to the tv, and we were exploring that aspect of the tv. (We seriously upgraded our tv at Christmas, so we are still exploring all the features.)

I was so in the mood. I made a beer run to Buccee's. I saw the ice cream treats, and feeling desserty, I got one for each of us. I was the hero when I got home because the men had been talking about what could be done about dessert when I got home. Several hours, and several beers later, we all went to bed around midnight. Good grief. LOL.

So this morning, I'm feeling surprising OK after drinking lots of water. I have yet to get some food. I'm drinking my lemon tea. The men are at work and school. I'm in my last days of no kid-dom and even though there are so many things to do around the house in preparation for selling and moving, I just want to play, do something for me.

Not sure what I'll do about that...

But here are my learned lessons about this holiday weekend.

1. Crockpots are your friend. Get your cooking done earlier in the day when you have more energy for it. Grilling may be easy, but it still takes work. Crockpots are DONE.
2. IF you cook, cook a lot so you have leftovers. Plan on eating leftovers for most of one day, to have a nice break.
3. Buy something special that is premade from the grocery store. (Like the mac n cheese). It may be expensive compared to homemade, but it's a lot cheaper than eating an entire meal in a restaurant.
4. Be sure to have a staple premade in the house, whether in the freezer or the pantry (pizza, canned soup).
5. Have good food available for easy snacking (variety of fruit).
6. Limit eating out to "treats" and not full bore meals, it'll keep the energy going for meals at home, while still giving you that something that feels like you got something that you didn't have to prepare.

 

[TxRabbit]

It was a struggle to get up in the morning Tuesday. DH didn't get our hot lemon tea. I didn't make him a lunch either, he said that he would have a business lunch that day, so no need.

I think DH had his cereal AND hard boiled eggs for breakfast.

DS had a quesadilla for breakfast with fruit. His lunch was leftover crockpot chicken, goldfish crackers, and chocolate.

I did have hot lemon tea. I drank it while I wrote my last journal entry. I had a smoothie for breakfast. It was unusual in that I made it with organic apple juice instead of the usual cranwater (the solution of 100% cranberry juice and water). It was weird but okay. There is a LOT of that juice left over from our colon cleanse, and somehow, it needs to get used.

Since it was later in the morning when I was eating (after DS had gone to school), I also ate a hard boiled egg.

I tried to do some simple things around the house with our newly acquired cable. Inspired by HGTV, I resisted the urge to get out of the house until after lunch. I ate the left over brocolli beef stir fry and fried rice for lunch. I missed more veggies in my lunch, but I wasn't really hungry anymore. I could have had one or the other and more veggies. Just a note for next time. I thought at the time that I would have veggies for a snack.

I got out of the house and enjoyed a bit of shopping before picking up DS from school.

After school, after playing with friends, DS wanted to go to Target to buy a gaming card for a one month membership for an online game. It WAS getting late in the day, it WAS dinner time really, and DS was hungry, smelled the pizza and asked for some. Thinking that DH and I could have soup and salad and DS could have the little personal pan pizzas they sell at our Target, I said yes.

But they were out of pizza.

And just like that the plan changed to Dominos. And just like that I knew that it was Two for Tuesday and DH and I would not be eating soup and salad for dinner.

DH and I were rather depressed. He got word about the England opportunity. That door shut. So no England. Georgia is leaving us hanging. Still no word from anyone, even though they said they would find out status and return with notice. You'd think you could even get a simple no, but apparantly, it isn't that simple.

DS got some popcorn from Target to munch on while we did another errand.

Feeling depressed and LAZY, I called Dominos from the library (had to go there after Target to return a movie that I couldn't renew) and picked up pizzas on the way home. Dominos is literally right around the corner from home.

Wheat and all. It was so good. I ate it at such a slow pace. I made myself do one piece at a time. I made myself set down the piece inbetween eat bite. Chew chew chew. I probably could have stopped with fewer pieces but it tasted so good, and I know my emotions were involved, and I ate my half of the pizza DH and I split.

Laziness is a problem. It was just too easy to do the pizza. And I wanted it. For whatever reason.

Wednesday was the last day of school. There was an award's assembly at 9:00am for third, fourth, and fifth graders. Our ending third grade son was going to be recognized for the All A's Honor Roll. Most of the other awards and things were for fifth grade and fourth grade. DH and I both went to the assembly.

DS ate pizza for breakfast.

We had Starbucks before going. And I picked up a throw away lunch for DS, incase we didn't check him out of school after the assembly. An Oscar Meyer lunchable like thing, a Slim Jim (DS's favorite), goldfish crackers and chocolate. What a lunch.

But we did check out DS. And DH and I were so hungry and ready for food. We went to Taco Cabana for breakfast food. I got a platter and only ate one of the side tortillas. DH had breakfast tacos. DS had steak fajita tacos.

Then DH went to work.

Later, DS ate the lunch that we had bought.

DS and I played the online game in the afternoon. We all like this kind of thing, but I hadn't made a character for this one yet. DS LOVES Wizard 101 and wanted me to play it. So I did.

I was going to get the kitchen all cleaned up, but then I realized that we ran out of dishwashing detergent. Ugh. I had forgotten while we were at Target the day before.

So when DH got home, the lazy bug hadn't been broken. We ate from Dave's Hoagie House, right around the corner. We ate burgers. More wheat for me. Ah well. We'll see how this affects my system.

Here I sit on Thursday morning. I did get up and get DH his lunch. Yay! He ate cereal for breakfast. He made his own coffee. And he got out the door late.

DS and I are sitting here on our computers, not having had any breakfast or anything yet.

It's the first day of summer. There's still quite a bit to do with the house. DH needs me to get an oil change on his car. There are errands to do (need dishwashing detergent!) and more things due back at the library.

I'm feeling out of sorts because the whole moving/job situation is frustrating. I know DH is frustrated. I'm not sure how to quantify my own thoughts and feelings, except to say that I'm lacking enthusiasm for the business of moving closer to DH's current job. I'm feeling like the future is so uncertain. Moving somewhere else would have yielded a solid possibility for a two-year plan, but just moving closer doesn't make me feel like we would necessarily be in the same place for two years. I don't know if DH will continue to want to look into moving somewhere else or not. It's hard to gather enthusiasm for what you know could be very short lived.

This is affecting my general energy level. And is translating over into the kitchen.

DS home for the summer isn't helping. I just want to hang out with my son.

I feel like I should be better prepared for this situation. Which has me feeling a bit more depressed. I'm very concerned that DS's summer will not be a good one. Moving. So disruptive. I want him to have a good break from school. He is so good at school, but he doesn't like it. Summer is so important. But this can't halt forward progress.

It's rough business. This situation.

I have a plan for dinner. Grilled chicken. (surprise surprise). Grilled asparagus. Grilled corn. Easy clean up dinner.

There's soup for DS and me to eat for lunch. I'm not sure if we will be home for it though with what we have to get done.

I resolve, that whatever happens, I will NOT eat wheat. But I'm cutting myself some slack for these last two days of the week. The beginning of summer.